Tweet

Thank you to everyone on Twitter, Skype, GChat and Facebook for your birthday wishes! As my phone buzzed every 5 seconds continually over the past 48 hours with notifications (birthdays last a long time when you exist in multiple hemispheres) I couldn’t help but be a bit overwhelmed by all the support from all corners of the world.

And while things are really excellent here in China, its been many moons since I’ve seen most of you. And although I’ve spent a good deal of time out of the United States over the last decade, my time in Asia has not yet come to an end and I’m more psyched than normal with upcoming projects and life in China. And as I am now 1 year older, and 1 year (allegedly) wiser, when it comes to video and photography, I feel like I have more energy than an eight-year-old. So much energy in fact, I’ve put all your Facebook comments in a nifty graphic above (you’ll need to click on it to find your name).

If you didn’t know June 14 is Flag Day, as well as National Pop Goes the Weasel Day. In fact, while I do want to thank everyone, a special shout out to Charles Apple for always keeping an amazing on eye on what everyone is apparently doing on their birthday. Its truly remarkable! This year Charles informs us:

Shannon, Jonah and Rob share a birthday with actors Yasmine Amanda Bleeth, William Rankin “Will” Patton and Margaret Theresa Bradley (better known as Marla Gibbs); musicians George Alan O’Dowd (better known as Boy George) and Burl Kle Ivanhoe Ives; sports greats Stefanie Marie “Steffi” Graf (tennis), Eric Arthur Heiden (speed skating), Kevin Edward McHale and Samuel Perkins (both basketball); novelists Józef Lewinkopf (better known as Jerry Kosiński) and Harriet Beecher Stowe; Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, presidential press secretary-turned-TV journalist Pierre Emil George Salinger, photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White and gazillionaire Donald John Trump.

In addition to Flag Day, today is Family History Day and World Blood Donor Day. Seriously.

A Quick Update

After finishing my project documenting redevelopment issues in cultural heritage areas in Beijing, and a 12-part video series in Inner Mongolia on reforestation and desertification I have some great new videos and projects coming out soon, including multiple features with the New York Times which I’m very excited about. More on my involvement with the Times soon … New collaborations with Danwei and a visual look at ancient Chinese instruments has been a great side project this month. Video projects from India will be coming up in my work production queue this month, while this blog will take off back to the Philippines. In July, comrade Kit Gillet and I will be headed back underground to begin a new project in Beijing’s Futurama style post-apocalyptic subterranean world.

While these projects have been going on — I’ve been doing my share of media whoring as well. Here’s a quick list of some of my own media appearances as of late:

• Paper Magazine: WWWe Could Be Next: Jonah Kessel
• Notes on Design: Jonah Kessel: Visual Journalism
• Interview: Jonah Kessel, ‘The Fate of Old Beijing: The Vanishing Hutongs’
• DSLR Newsshooter: The Perils of Subtitling and Translation in Video – Jonah Kessel on his Latest 5DMII Project
• DSLR Newshooter: Do I call myself a Photojournalist, Videographer, or Documentary Film Maker?
• Beijing Daze: Danwei is dead, Long Live the New Danwei
• Hutongs Revisted: Jonah Kessel
• Moodboard Podcast with Jonah Kessel

My geographic location should be in China until late July or early August, when I am headed back to the United States for the first time in a long while. I’ll be traveling through California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, New York, Vermont and Boston. For those of you who might be along that path, I would love to catch up in the non-Facebook realm and see you in this “real” life I’m always hearing about.

Until then, I’ll be here.

Thanks again for all the birthday wishes and nice words.

Jonah